Gavin McInnes

Gavin McInnes

Gavin McInnes is a Canadian writer and political commentator. He co-founded Vice in 1994, and permanently relocated to the United States in 2001. He is known for his far-right political activism and his role as the founder of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist political group. In 2018, he was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for violating terms of use related to promoting violent extremist groups and hate speech. His account was suspended from YouTube for violating YouTube’s policies concerning hate speech, posting content that was inciting violence against another person or group of people.

About Gavin McInnes in brief

Summary Gavin McInnesGavin McInnes is a Canadian writer and political commentator. He co-founded Vice in 1994, and permanently relocated to the United States in 2001. He is known for his far-right political activism and his role as the founder of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist political group. In 2018, he was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for violating terms of use related to promoting violent extremist groups and hate speech. In June 2020, his account was suspended from YouTube for violating YouTube’s policies concerning hate speech, posting content that was inciting violence against another person or group of people. He holds both Canadian and British citizenship and currently lives in Larchmont, New York. He was born to Scottish parents in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, and moved to Ottawa, Ontario when he was four years old. He graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa before moving to Montreal and co-founding Vice with Suroosh Alvi and Shane Smith. He left Vice in 2008 due to what he described as “creative differences” with the magazine’s corporate owners. In 2009, he convinced a journalist at The Village Voice that he had been knocked out after losing a challenge to MMA fighter David Cross. He also co- founded an advertising agency called Rooster where he served as creative director. In 2008, he created the website StreetCarnage, a website that promotes his anti-MMA views. In 2010, he co-authored two Vice books: The Vice Guide to Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, and Vice Dos and Don’ts: 10 Years of VICE Magazine’s Street Fashion Critiques.

In 2012, he wrote a book called The VICE Guide to Picking Up Chicks, which was published by Simon & Schuster. In 2013, he published a book about his time at Vice, The VICE guide to sex and drugs and rock and roll. In 2014, he released a second book, TheVICE Guide to Drugs and Sex and Rock & Roll, about his experiences as a sex and drug dealer in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In 2015, he launched a website called StreetC Carnage, which promotes his views on sex, drugs, and rock & roll. He has been featured in The New York Times in a 2003 article about Vice magazine expressing his political views, and in a 2006 interview with actor and comedian David Cross in The Vice Cross Guide to Travel. In 2016, he appeared in an interview with The Times in which he said he was pleased that most Williamsburg hipsters were white. He later wrote in a letter to Gawker that the interview was done as a prank intended to ridicule “baby boomer media like The Times” He is a contributor to Taki’s Magazine and was a frequent guest on Fox News and TheBlaze and contributor to The Rebel Media. He claims that he only has supported political violence in self-defense, and that he is not far- right or a supporter of fascism. In more recent years, he has drawn attention for hisFar-Right political activism. McInnis was described as the ‘godfather’ of hipsterdom by WNBC.